The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 03 eBook

“Of Ibycus?”—­that
name so dear
Thrills through the hearts of those
who hear!
Like wave on wave in eager seas,
From mouth to mouth the murmur flees—­
“Of Ibycus, whom we bewail!
The murder’d one!
What mean those words?
Who is the man—­knows
he the tale?
Why link that name with
those wild birds?”

Questions on questions louder press—­
Like lightning flies the inspiring
guess—­
Leaps every heart—­“The
truth we seize;
Your might is here, EUMENIDES!
The murderer yields himself confest—­
Vengeance is near—­that
voice the token—­
Ho!-him who yonder spoke, arrest!
And him to whom the
words were spoken!”

Scarce had the wretch the words
let fall,
Than fain their sense he would recall
In vain; those whitening lips—­behold!
The secret have already told.
Into their Judgment Court sublime
The Scene is changed;—­their
doom is seal’d!
Behold the dark unwitness’d
Crime,
Struck by the lightning
that reveal’d!

* * * *
*

THE WORDS OF BELIEF (1797)

Three Words will I name thee—­around
and about,
From the lip to the lip, full
of meaning, they flee;
But they had not their birth in the being
without,
And the heart, not the lip,
must their oracle be!
And all worth in the man shall for ever
be o’er
When in those Three Words he believes
no more.

Man is made FREE!—­Man, by birthright,
is free,
Though the tyrant may deem
him but born for his tool.
Whatever the shout of the rabble may be—­
Whatever the ranting misuse
of the fool—­
Still fear not the Slave, when he breaks
from his chain,
For the Man made a Freeman grows safe
in his gain.

And Virtue is more than a shade or a sound,
And Man may her voice, in
this being, obey;
And though ever he slip on the stony ground,
Yet, ever again to the godlike
way,
To the science of Good though the
Wise may be blind,
Yet the practice is plain to the
childlike mind.

And a God there is—­over Space,
over Time;
While the Human Will rocks,
like a reed, to and fro,
Lives the Will of the Holy—­A
Purpose Sublime,
A Thought woven over creation
below;
Changing and shifting the All we inherit,
But changeless through all One Immutable
Spirit!

Hold fast the Three Words of Belief—­though
about
From the lip to the lip, full
of meaning, they flee;
Yet they take not their birth from the
being without—­
But a voice from within must
their oracle be;
And never all worth in the Man can be
o’er,
Till in those Three Words he believes
no more.